Famine News & Analysis

A Vicious Cycle: War and Famine in Sudan

Situation Reports - Dec 03, 2024

A village in Nuba, South Sudan, abandoned during an earlier civil conflict. cc Maureen Didde, modified, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abandoned_Nuba_village.jpg

Examining the nexus of violence and famine that fuels the Sudan civil war.

Ethiopia: A Geopolitical Time Bomb in the Making

Situation Reports - Nov 16, 2020

EthiopiaFlag, cc Flickr John Iglar, modified, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Ethiopia’s climate-sensitive economy, growing population, and inter-ethnic conflict make it a geopolitical time bomb primed to explode.

UN Sounds Alarm over 2017 Somalia Drought

Situation Reports - Apr 24, 2017

cc Flickr: SomalilandDrought011, modified, Aden Jama takes one of his few remaining goats out to look for pasture. As the drought has worsened he and his family have lost many of their animals and had to move closer to the village and the water trucking site. “Before the drought I had 220 sheep and goats and 12 camels. Now I have 40 sheep and goats and three camels left. The rest have died from the lack of water and pasture. “We used to live 10kms away and come to the village when we needed things. But we’ve had to move closer and closer as the livestock are getting weaker and can’t travel so far. “This is the first time we’ve seen this scale – in the last drought a few animals died but most survived. Now they are so weak that if it rains heavily it might kill them – we will have to shelter them in the house or they would die in the rain. “Our lives depend on our livestock – we have no other skills and there are no other jobs. “In the past the children had milk from the animals. Now they have nothing. They are still ok for now, but you can see them getting weaker. It is almost six months since they ate meat or vegetables. Relatives send us food – we mainly eat rice twice a day, and sometimes maize, tea, flour and bread.” / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oxfam_East_Africa_-_SomalilandDrought011.jpg

Drought and food insecurity have created a humanitarian crisis in Somalia, leading to an uptick in piracy in the Gulf of Aden among other destabilizing developments.

Famine, Al-Shabaab Threaten Progress in Somalia

Situation Reports - Mar 08, 2017

cc AMISOM, modified, AMISOM Public Information / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AMISOM_%26_Somali_National_Army_operation_to_capture_Afgoye_Corridor_Day_2_22_%287300585116%29.jpg

A famine is threatening a delicate sense of hope in one of Africa’s most dysfunctional states.